Gap fee waiving Until 30 June 2022, services can waive the gap fee and receive Child Care Subsidy (CCS) if a child is unable to attend care for one of four reasons:
- They, or a member of their immediate household, must isolate due to COVID-19.
This includes if they are a close contact or are awaiting test results.
This applies from 9 November 2021.
- The child is at a higher risk of severe disease from COVID-19.
This includes:
children with a disability children with severe chronic health conditions Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Where the child has a disability or chronic health condition, the family must provide a letter from a medical practitioner confirming the child is at higher risk before the service can waive the gap fee. The service must keep a record of the letter.
This applies from 27 January 2022.
- The service, or a room at the service, is closed due to COVID-19.
This includes where:
The service, or a part of the service, closed based on general guidance from a state or territory government agency, such as a health, education, or regulatory agency, due to a COVID-19 case. This applies from 27 January 2022. Services must have written advice for closures prior to 27 January 2022. The service, or a part of the service, closed because educator to child ratios cannot be safely met due to the educator/s isolating. This applies from 27 January 2022. Services must have written advice for closures prior to 27 January 2022. A Family Day Care or In Home Care educator can’t provide their usual service because they, or a member of their immediate household must isolate due to COVID-19. Written advice from a state agency is not required. This applies from 1 October 2021. An Outside School Hours Care service operating on a school campus closed as part of a direction to the school to close. This applies from 1 October 2021. Services are encouraged to explore all options to remain open and provide care for vulnerable children and children of essential workers.
- The state or territory has restricted access to child care in a region due to COVID-19.
This includes where the state or territory has restricted school attendance, in the case of Outside School Hours Care.
This applies from the first day the restrictions are in force.
Services must not waive the gap fee for families in any other circumstances.
If a family chooses to keep their child at home they may use their allowable absences, but must pay a gap fee to the service.
Services must accurately reflect waived gap fees in the fee statements provided to parents. With some power comes some responsibility, don’t use this inappropriately. Its not compulsory.
Weekly Attendance Screen
Automatic exempt will only work if the child has been absent for all sessions in the week. If the child attended at least 1 session, the gap waive will need to be done manually (see below for more information).
To help you manage this process, SmartCentral has introduced additional options on the attendance screens to automate the waiving of the parent GAP, but it can only be for the entire week.
You can now select 1 or more attendances and choose Charge or * Exempt*.
Charge - removes the exempt previously attached to the attendance Exempt - will waive the parent GAP
The relevant action will be applied to all selected attendances as long as all sessions in that attendance are marked as absence or additional absence.
Attendances that have been exempted are highlighted in yellow. These attendances and related CCS payments will appear on the parent’s transactions and statements as a zero amount.
Attendances can be marked “exempt” before or after the attendance has been submitted.
Individual Attendance Screen
You can also Charge or * Exempt* an individual attendance from the Attendance Screen. The functions work the same way but are only applied to the attendance that’s open.
How to Manually Waive a portion of the Parent GAP
First, set up a Misc Fee code so you can keep track of any manually waived fees.
You can only waive the fees if you are in one of the locked down postcodes/areas, and only if they are absent for COVID reasons. For those families who may attend some sessions and may be absent for others, then you cannot waive the fees for those attended (eg rostered to work in the office 2 days a week, and from home the rest of the week)
Part weeks will need to be waived manually, using a negative Miscellaneous Fee charge to refund the GAP. See above section on creating a Misc Fee Code to use.
When the relevant weekly attendance is submitted, the full charge will be placed on the parent’s transaction TAB. When the CCS is returned the CCS paid for the week will be known. You will need to wait for the CCS to be paid and then work out your partial parent GAP to waive.
** You need to work out the portion to be waived, prior to running the invoices for the relevant week, and prior to DD runs as they will still be paying a portion of the GAP.
The following example is worked out on a family who is getting the same amount of CCS paid per session. Eg. Their booking is for 4 days, they are eligible for 100hrs a fortnight and that more than covers the attended and absent sessions.
Family A: Is booking for 4 days a week normally, but in advance has elected to keep their child home 2 days a week for COVID related reasons.
So their child attends 2 days a week, and is absent for COVID related reasons for the other 2 days
Full LDC charges for the week are $400. CCS Paid was $360. parent GAP for 4 days is $40.
$40 divided by 4 sessions = $10 per session Parent GAP. Family was only absent for 2 sessions, so GAP to be waived is $10 x 2 = $20
Create a Misc Fee Charge “CV19” for -20 on the parent’s Transaction TAB.
The screenshot example below is refunding $46, in the case above you would only refund $20.
